But love that is self-abnegating, all-consuming, and totally erases any kind of independence looks a lot more like domestic violence than fabulous romance, and doormats aren't actually very interesting as protagonists.

The UK Nannystate is so accustomed to making everything “easier” for its citizenry, so in the habit of removing challenges from the lives of the English people, that it cannot understand the concept of purposely doing something difficult, challenging and self-abnegating.

In other words, the maverick who offers himself up as a possible leader is either promising to be one of the most self-abnegating and self-disciplined people alive or he's warning you he's going to be a tyrant.

Doubling over, walking pigeon-toed, coughing, frail, and self-abnegating (he said "I'm sorry" or "Excuse me" to Cavett about a dozen times), this Jimi Hendrix -- the same one I met and interviewed -- was in retrospect not long for this world, the seeming opposite of his image as the super-macho, highly sexual, guitar-burning "rock demigod."